9th Research Workshop on Cybersafety

The digitization of society has brought new challenges to our daily lives. Not only do we now have to maintain a certain level of safety in the physical world but also in “cyberspace”. This is what we refer to as “cybersafety”. The 9th Research Workshop will be dealing with threads like cybercrime, internet addiction and cyber bullying among many others.

Cybersafety – Real Threads in Virtual Worlds

Any society has to maintain a certain level of safety in order to flourish and function properly. The digitization of society has brought new challenges in this field. Not only do we now have to maintain a certain level of safety in the physical world but also in ´cyberspace´. This is what we refer to as ´cyber-safety´. The physical world and cyberspace are highly interwoven (e.g. we buy goods on the internet and have the articles delivered at home). Cyberspace has become an essential and integrated part of our daily lives and, consequently, it is crucial that our society keeps a certain level of safety there too.

Cyber safety encompasses more than cybercrime. This is most obvious in the context of youth and cybersafety where internet addiction, cyber bullying and communication with unwanted sexual connotations come to mind. Yet, cybercrime is a core issue in this field. For the time being, ´cybercrime´ can be defined as ´crime in which the use of ICT plays a crucial role´.

Cybercrimes

Cybercrimes with a high social impact and thus with a high priority in law enforcement are e-fraud, the production and distribution of child pornography, different forms of ´identity fraud´ and attacks (hacking, DDoS) on crucial websites such as from banks and public services. Furthermore, on a more abstract level, the development of underground economies in cyberspace is a point of concern.

In the early days of the internet cybercrime was the property of whizz kids with special abilities in the sphere of computer technologies. Nowadays committing a cybercrime is within the reach of many. Many, if not most hacking and e-fraud cases for example, are low tech in character. These days, cybercrime more often is the result of ´human engineering´ (such as fooling someone with a so-called phishing mail) than the result of a technological masterpiece. However, it should be noted that there also exists organized cybercrime, in which high tech elements occur (such as the production of counterfeit debit cards and the creation of ´botnets´).

Cybercrime has become a regular crime among other frequently occurring crimes. In 2012, for example, hacking became the top crime in the Netherlands, superseding bicycle theft, which for long was the number one traditional crime. Even more, another Dutch study revealed that in 2011 more persons in the Netherlands have been victims of e-fraud (3.5%) than of (offline) pick pocketing (1.7%).

Now that cybercrime is omnipresent, our society is in need of effective counter-strategies in order to maintain a certain level of social order. The main problem in this respect is a lack of knowledge about the cybercrime phenomenon and about the effectiveness of possible measures. For example:

• What exactly is ´identity fraud´ and how can we measure the scale of the problem?
• How often does it happen that youth below the age of 18 produce and distribute child pornographic material? Should they be treated like every other sex offender (criminal law)?
• What powers do the police have in cyberspace? How do they use these powers? How should police powers be regulated?
• How can we get ourselves a picture of organized cybercrime? What can be done to hinder cyber-criminal organizations or networks?
• What is the scope of e-banking fraud? What measures can be taken to reduce the problem?

These kinds of questions are the starting point of the research workshop.

See also

• Video-Comment of Prof. Dr. Woúter Stol: Video (3:10)
• "Cybersafety & Cybercrime – Livebericht eines Vortrages von Prof. Dr. Woúter Stol (in German)
• Educational rationale and explanation of special educational settings for the research workshope series of IMB: Forschungswerkstatt – neues Veranstaltungsformat (in German)
• Announcement of IMB-DUK Webpage

Registration

The participation fee for the 9th Research workshop will be € 50, - for contribution towards costs. The registration is binding.After your registration you will receive the documents to the 9th Research Workshop, including the invoice via email.  Please approve your payments no later than 28th of November.

Cancellation

In case of cancellation, the Danube University reserves the right to charge € 50, - as cancellation fee.

Please send your registration to gerhild.schabasser@donau-uni.ac.at.